The most helpful favourable review

The most helpful critical review

49 of 49 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 starsSwiss army knife of a Bluetooth Headset!
Bought this to work with my Samsung Galaxy Note 3. It does not disappoint!

Firstly the device is larger than an average BT headset but you do get a lot in return. The main function for listening to audio wirelessly through the earphones is obvious (and sounds very clear with good bass levels) and the inclusion of FM radio is very welcome and works nicely with...

1.0 out of 5 starsConnection stability way below expectations
This is my third sony bluetooth headset. I've had this headset for approx. 3 months now. When it works, it's OK, but there are some annoying flaws with it. I use it connected to a Samsung Galaxy Note 2.

1) When turning on the device, sometimes it goes directly into pairing mode - even though it was paired when I turned it off.2) If the device has been on,...

Bought this to work with my Samsung Galaxy Note 3. It does not disappoint!

Firstly the device is larger than an average BT headset but you do get a lot in return. The main function for listening to audio wirelessly through the earphones is obvious (and sounds very clear with good bass levels) and the inclusion of FM radio is very welcome and works nicely with RDS information on the clear bright OLED display.

But, where this device differs is that you can remove the earphones and the device works like a mini mobile phone. You can hold it up to your ear and make use of the phone speaker and microphone. I tested it out and my caller could not tell the difference, all was clear and audible. There's a separate speaker for speakerphone function if you prefer. That speaker will also allow you to playback music too or take advantage of text to speech from incoming notifications.

If you use it on an Android device there are a few smart apps compatible with it. These are for notifying you of SMS, Gmail, Calendar events, Twitter and Facebook. Those messages scroll along the screen meaning you don't have to get the phone out to read them. As stated you can get the messages read out for you if you wish.

Finally the other killer feature if you have a NFC enabled device, is that this will pair instantly by bumping together the devices each time you turn it on!

Only criticism is the device when used as a 'phone' handset is small so you don't get brilliant comfort when holding it to your ear but it's a small price to pay if you don't want someone to rob you of your phone or risk dropping it when in a call. Also it's a fingerprint magnet!

I do highly recommend this device if you have one of the new larger phablet style premium phones. It's great!

Been waiting for a while for this to come out, and now it's here, it's a permanent member of my kit.

Bluetooth range is exceptional for line-of-sight, and very good for indoor. Audio quality when being used as a headset is good as well, although the noise cancellation could do with some work (according to the wife, who was on the receiving end of a windy call!)

Negatives really are only the app compatibility. Because it's a new piece of hardware, apps are a bit limited, but the range is growing. That, and the small cable on both the bundled earphones and USB cable are a bit of a shame.

I have had Bluetooth Headsets in the past but none of them have ever come close to the Sony SBH52 Smart Bluetooth Handset, can make calls and receive calls clear every time I am never without it I would highly recommend the handset to anyone thinking of buying a Bluetooth Headset or handset in this case

This is my third sony bluetooth headset. I've had this headset for approx. 3 months now. When it works, it's OK, but there are some annoying flaws with it. I use it connected to a Samsung Galaxy Note 2.

1) When turning on the device, sometimes it goes directly into pairing mode - even though it was paired when I turned it off.2) If the device has been on, but has been out of range from my cell phone, it is usually not possible to reconnect the two. I have to restart the device.3) Sometimes the headset/phone randomly drops the connection even though they are within range. The bluetooth symbol on the phone suggests that they are still connected, but neither calls nor music are directed to the headset. I need to restart the headset.4) Occasionally the phone pops up with a message to pair the two again - even though I did pair them earlier the same day.

I wrote to sony support back in february about issues 1 and 3, and they acknowledged the issues and said they were working on them, promising me a firmware update in march. Nothing has happened since.

All in all, I'm am not satisfied with this product, and it feels like a huge step backwards from previous sony bluetooth headsets that worked far better.

I bought this for use with a Nexus 5. It worked well as a Bluetooth device but had so many other annoyances that i have completely stopped using it. Hopefully the points below will clarify some of the questions I had before buying, which sadly there was not enough information online to answer for me:

- if you plug in a set of earphones which have a built in mic it does not use that mic in preference of its inbuilt mic

- you have to install a whole bunch of extra software to make use of most features. This software is annoying, invasive and not well developed or supported by Sony.

- It is a bit too big to be clipping to your collar

- The earphones that come with it are OK. They have a short cable as the intention is that you clip the device to your collar. You can swap these out for any other earphones you like, but you'll find you have a long trail of cable floating around.

- I cannot fail to be impressed with the mic on this thing. I haven't used it extensively in a noisy environment, but certainly in quieter places it does a fantastic job.

If you have a Sony phone already you probably have all the bloatware needed to get this thing fully operational. However Sony's focus is not on this device and it appears to have fallen out of support with recent software updates. If you want something purely to remove cables and are happy using the built in mic (i.e. clipping it to your collar) then fine. But i'd strongly suggest ignoring all the fancy stuff Sony claim it can do (probably even if you have a Sony phone).

My personal recommendation would be to go for a decent set of earphones with a built in mic. I went for this because i couldn't find any that had volume as well as the ability to skip tracks that supported android and had asymmetric cables (this seemed to do all of that with the benefit of removing the cable to my device). However I have since found that the Sennheiser MM70s' do all of this and so use them instead. I'm unlikely to use this thing ever again. Don't waste your money like me - it sounds great, but is not worth the hassle.

Bought as a replacement for my MW600 which got soaked and gave up the ghost.

First off, this is considerably larger than the 600 making it a lot less discreet however, that's not all bad. With no earphone connected, the main body of the unit can be used as a mini telephone provided it's connected you mobile obviously. Unfortunately you can't dial out from it, at least if you can, i haven't found that feature yet. Sound quality both in and out seems pretty good from my experience so far bit with and without the earphone.

The fact that it can pair to two devices at once means that you can listen to music from one device while being ready to make calls from another. Switching between devices seemed more complicated than the 600 to start with but now seems easier. In fact, I leave it set to connect to two devices even if I'm only going to be using one.

The SMART functionality can be useful. You can read texts and emails but not reply to them and your calendar entries are displayed to. Therefore, if you don't need to reply, this can be a very convenient as you don't need to take the phone out.

It comes with a pair of headphones but I can't say anything about them, they've gone into the drawer with all the other spares.

All in all, I'm very happy with this product. But I still miss my little 600

The android app allows you to access the call log and select numbers to call or call back.- It does not allow you to manually dial numbers without the main phone/tablet keypad.- It does not allow you to search through contacts list or phone numbers / names.

The android app also allows reading various notifications like last dialed numbers. missed calls, msg, txt, gmail, calendar etc. via the display and also has a txt to speech option to hear the words being read out to you.

The SBH52 is NOT a mini mobile phone for dialing or txting/msging etc.

It is not a BT Transmitter to send audio to any other BT Receiver.- You can use it as a bridge to send audio to it from a BT device and then output from the 3.5mm jack to another device with an audio input jack like a STEREO, AMP, SPEAKER or a PC etc.

It is NOT going to work 100% perfectly with every compatible device all the time, no such device exists.Get over it. Learn how to reset it properly it only takes 3 secs and then you can pair to device again as new.

PRO's1. It is a little bit complicated for many people but when you understand how it works and use it for a while it's easily the best BT adaptor around just for the basic BT headset functions and the HD quality.

3. Not cheap but solid build quality, loads of features and good value overall.

CON's1. Like most multi-function BT devices it takes a bit of learning to understand the how to's and what it can and can't do. Nothing new there for me but Sony have not made this easy and for novice users this must be a bit of a nightmare to figure out when it's not working the way they thought it would. It is a little bit complicated for many people.

2. The FM radio needs presets, it is slow and slightly annoying to switch frequency.Anyone who bought this for the FM radio as much as anything else is just assuming that it would allow this function. Very bad mistake in the design.. At any price it's lazy, bad design.

3. The SONY company clearly wants to promote it with their own products so apart from standard BLUETOOTH functions good luck being sure the app and extras works 100% with all non-SONY android devices and forget about apple unless there's a new app or hack for it. No bog surprises there.

I don't have much reason to complain about it, it needs slightly better radio functions and it does need to be reset sometimes, especially if pairing with various mixed types and particularly older devices but that's a fast fix/easy to sort out and then pair again as new.

The android app is underdeveloped and kinda useless but trying to read detailed notifications on such a small screen with limited controls is the source of the bad idea and the inevitable fail.

Read the full user guide here:http://support.sonymobile.com/ie/sbh52/userguide/Overview---AccCS/

GL&HF... :D

ORIGINAL REVIEW____________________The usual high quality and premium build quality from SONY with a load of extra features.

I purchased this for two main reasons, I needed a good FM radio and a Bluetooth headphone adapter.The extra headphones, HD voice quality, NFC, Android APP and the mini Handset feature were all an added bonus.

My only minor issue is that the FM Radio only plays through the headphone jack and cannot be played through the loudspeaker but although that would have been better it's not a reason to mark it down any less overall.

I've tried 20+ versions of Bluetooth adapter devices like this over the years and it's by far and easily the best of the bunch.

Very helpful accessory. It works with two devices. It can warn and show new SMS and e-mail messages, calendar reminders, play music off the connected device, even RSS feeds. A great advantage is that it works with any ordinary earphones, it doesn't need the phone ones with built-in mic.